How to crowdfund

A crowdfunding campaign can give you the cash you need to start a business or to keep one from going under. Using the economic might of the crowd is a great way of getting cash and customers. We’ll tell you how to crowdfund and point you to sites offering this financial solution.

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Figure out what it’s for

If you want to use crowdfunding to start a business, you need to figure out the specifics before you start asking people for cash. Crowdfunders want to believe that their cash is helping to fund something important and unique so the business idea is vitally important.

Research

As anyone who’s ever watched BBC’s Dragon’s Den will tell you, understand your product before you ask for cash. Researching the market is vital. Find out what your competitors are doing and why you’re different because these things will give you an understanding of where you could head with your product.

Crowdfunding

You’re already doing this next stage by reading this article because researching Crowdfunding is a major key to a successful transaction. The two major sites to look into are indiegogo.com and kickstarter.com. You can crowdfund basically anything on Indiegogo but on Kickstarter you really need to have a creative project such as the arts, photography, film or publishing. You should also consider using CrowdCube and Seedrs as these sites allow you to issue shares over the web and receive small investments from registered users in return.

Success

If you need proof that crowdfunding can work out, check out some of the famous names who have used this process to raise cash. Moviemaker Spike Lee raised $1.4 million from Kickstarter to make Da Sweet Blood of Jesus in 2013. And Musician Amanda Palmer used the site to raise $1.2 million from 24,883 backers in 2012 to make an album.